Gears of War: The Movie -- 'nuff said

The amazingly deep, rich, and compelling human drama that was Gears of War, where big beefy humans fight some bug/humanoid creatures, could seriously get the big screen treatment. Variety reports that New Line won the rights to the project which included a 21-page treatment by Stuart Beattie, who was the scribe behind Collateral (yay!) and Derailed (eh?).

Now before we get all excited about who should play Marcus Fenix, let's remember that Halo was on the same path and fell apart last year. Of course, unless the movie is looking to become this generations Lawrence of Arabia, certain things are missing from the Gears of War cast, like a female lead -- heck, even Master Chief had Cortana. New Line went all out years ago for the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Could we see the saga of Marcus Fenix complete in the movies before we ever see it in the games?